Events are becoming increasingly important fundraisers and friendraisers for gardens of all sizes. This session will cover the nuts and bolts of creating a new event from the perspectives of three very different gardens—a large garden with a history of...

As cultural attitudes and mindsets shift ever more rapidly, how do botanical gardens stay relevant? Our collections, from living plants to herbarium specimens, represent an intrinsic part of botanical garden DNA. However, these collections are not...

Orchid, holiday, and other types of big shows and festivals are becoming increasingly popular ways to draw in visitors to public gardens. Pairing displays with interpretive messages under a theme allows us to tell a cohesive story with strongly...

How do gardens creatively bring new life to their annual exhibitions? Each year gardens across the country feature annual experiences that have become a staple for their organization. These exhibitions might manifest themselves as an annual orchid show...

This presentation from the 2018 annual conference covers common materials and objects found in public gardens as well as means of deterioration and damage and some suggestions for remediation. The speaker focuses on artworks and decorative elements and...

The National Endowment for the Arts continued its webinar series on evaluating arts programs with a discussion on how state arts agencies and regional arts organizations are using evaluation to assess their grant portfolios.

Laura Scanlan, NEA...

This guidebook was developed out of strong evidence that audience research can strengthen audience-building initiatives by helping institutions understand how to build meaningful connections with different groups. Based on work with a diverse set of...

An interdisciplinary field trip to a remote marine lab joined graduate students from fine arts and natural resource science departments to think creatively about the topic of climate change and science communication. We followed a learning cycle...

Artist in Residence programs have been popular in the art world for some time, but few gardens take advantage of this opportunity. Residency programs can provide institutions with new ways of looking at their living and non-living collections, develop...

This presentation will show the profound role that art, science, and technology play in building ecological literacy and resilience. Presented by award-winning landscape architect and educator, Roberto Rovira...

Join your garden colleagues of small, university, and large gardens as they share their creative success stories in a lively and focused “rapid fire” session. Each presenter must tell his/her story in six...

Exhibits in public gardens keep perspectives fresh, use spaces in new ways, attract new audiences, and much more. But they can also strain resources such as time, money, and staff capacity. Licensing a...

Discover how hosting exhibits has successfully transformed and freshened programming at three different gardens. Being intentional about integrating marketing, membership, education, and visitor activities...